Joanna Kalafatis Shines in LA Premiere of “Lights Off, Eyes Closed”

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Mar 25, 2012

Joanna Kalafatis

Greek-American actress Joanna Kalafatis plays the lead character, Jane, in the play “Lights Off, Eyes Closed”, which premiered for the first time on Saturday, March 24th, at T.U. Studios in North Hollywood, CA. The play is the second 2012 production of the SkyPilot Theatre Company, which has received rave reviews from the LA Press.

The play explores Jane’s relationship with her recently deceased mother, and the stumbling blocks she faces as she tries to find love. Jane is a shy, awkward, and somewhat cynical about love 24-year old virgin. Her mother was a romance novelist whose fairytale concept of romance and rocky divorce has disillusioned Jane about love and relationships.

Jane’s inheritance from her mother is a romance novel outline she must finish. She has to push through her cynicism and inexperience to complete the book, while at the same time trying to work out a relationship with a new man in her life, Edgar (portrayed by JR Esposito).

Jane faces quite a few challenges; constant interference from her dead mother (portrayed by Mary Burkin), who keeps meddling in Jane’s life from beyond the grave, a high school crush on her long-time friend Darian (portrayed by Jason Kobielus) she can’t quite get over, a sometimes-rocky relationship with her best friend Ali (portrayed by Samantha Carro), and a stern editor, Miriam (portrayed by Chera Holland), who is unsure of Jane’s potential and talent.

The script, by Liz Shannon Miller, is both heartwarming and funny, as the Hero and Heroine of Jane’s romance novel (played by the same actors who play Ali and Darian) act out Jane’s writing on stage. The cast turns in beautiful, nuanced performances under the direction of Meredith Berg, making for an amusing and poignant play.

Joanna Kalafatis as Jane in “Lights Off, Eyes Closed”

Joanna Kalafatis left Greece at the age of 8 to move to New York, and has been living and working in LA as an actress for the past year and a half. She has worked with director Stephen Gyllenhaal, who has been nominated twice for a Director’s Guild Award, starred in a short film by Constantinos Moussoulis, which will be premiering at the 2012 Boston Film Festival, and acted in a short film by Blair Skinner that will be shown this year at the Cannes Short Film Corner.